


Dissonance

by FromFarAway



Series: Only in Dreams [1]
Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Graves doesn't even really appear yet, M/M, Modern AU, Pre-Relationship, but there'll be more ficlets in this series that aren't, no wizarding world, people share dreams with their soulmates, sort of melancholy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-10
Updated: 2017-12-10
Packaged: 2019-02-12 23:42:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 595
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12970986
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FromFarAway/pseuds/FromFarAway
Summary: Credence is struggling after entering foster care and a new high school, and he's finding some things Mary Lou never told him more shocking than others.





	Dissonance

Credence had always been different.  The way he looked and behaved and his inability to do anything right.  _ After _ it was even worse.  As if the definition of normal was constantly shifting every time he reached for it.  His childhood with Mary Lou, living in the foster system and starting over at a public school as the weird new kid part way through the year were all things that set him apart.  He’d lost count of the things he didn’t even know he didn’t know that set him apart from everyone else.  So when it came up, he didn’t realize at first.

He was lost.  More so than usual, recently, at his new school, which was loud and crowded and full of chatter and kids and so, so different from homeschooling with Mary Lou.  He had hoped to keep his head down until he got the hang of… everything, but here he was, pulled into a social situation he had no idea how to navigate.

“So, have you had any  _ dreams  _ recently.”  The girl who had dragged him to the bustling lunch table whispered conspiratorially, trying again to start a conversation.

“Laura, don’t be rude!”  The girl on her other side exclaimed. 

Despite the denouncement, the entire table still seemed to get quieter and focus on him, so of course Credence panicked under the pressure and blurted out the first thing that came to mind “Last night I had a dream that the guy on your binder was drunkenly trashing my house.” (It was true.  The dream had been weird but the floppy-haired man was… objectively very good looking.)

The boys at the table burst into uproarious laughter as the girl next to him (Laura he reminded himself) turned beet red.

“Good one, new kid.”  The boy on his other side said, slapping him on the back. “All the girls here go gaga for that dumb actor way too much.  Always thinking he’s going to appear in their  _ dreams _ .”

Credence laughed along.  He had gotten good at pretending to fit in.  The conversation turned to other topics, but he couldn’t help the feeling he was missing something important.

  
  
  


* * *

  
  
  


He went to the library after school to use a computer.  The first he had access to without Mary Lou’s parental control software on it that made it difficult to look up anything.  In the search bar he typed ‘dreams’.  The search engine asked him if he meant ‘soulmate dreams’.

He devoured as many pages of information as he could.  Result after result was the same.  His heart was pounding in his ears.  Mary Lou had never mentioned any of this.  She barely let them watch any tv or movies, and none of this had ever come up in anything he had been allowed to watch.  Maybe god didn’t like soulmates?  But if he didn’t like them why did he create them? 

 Smiling pictures of couples stared back at him from every site he went to.  Credence put his head in his arms and breathed deeply into the darkness.   _ The vast majority of cases present before the age of 16  _ flashed before his eyes.  It didn’t mean anything.  It didn’t mean anything.  Just because he was a year older than that it didn’t mean that he was left out.  It didn’t have to mean that he was ‘dreamless’.  Maybe he was just a late bloomer.  But, with a sinking heart, Credence couldn’t help but feel that the dreams would never start, that he would be destined to be alone and unhappy forever, another way he was  _ different. _


End file.
